Violence rocks Shopian, two polling booths torched

New Delhi: A presiding officer at a booth in Tarakeswar was removed after one person, allegedly belonging to Trinamul, was seen casting votes on behalf of others there.

In Jammu and Kashmir, polling took place in Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency and also in Pulwama and Shopian districts of Anantnag Lok Sabha seat.

In Shopian, two polling booths were set on fire. Militants lobbed a grenade towards Rohmoo polling station and set off an explosion at another polling booth in Tral in Pulwama but no one was injured in the two incidents. Barring a few reports of poll boycott and EVM glitches, voting was largely peaceful in Bihar. One person was taken into custody in Saran for damaging an EVM.

“The voting process was delayed by around 30 minutes in six polling stations of Saran, two in Madhubani, one each in Sitamarhi and Muzaffarpur constituencies due to technical glitches in EVMs,” said an official.

Meanwhile, in a development which may send worrying signals within the BJP, senior party leader Ram Madhav told a foreign news agency that the party might fall short of simple majority.

Speaking to the news agency, Mr Madhav said, “If we get 271 seats on our own we will be happy. With NDA we will have a comfortable majority.”

The party will make up for expected losses in the north Indian states it swept in 2014 with new gains in the northeast, as well as in West Bengal and Odisha, Mr Madhav said.

The NDA government will pursue pro-growth policies if it returns to power as it has not shifted from a focus on economic reforms to one based on populist cash handouts, he said.

The conservative forecast by Mr Madhav, who is the BJP’s national general secretary, is far below what other party leaders, including finance minister Arun Jaitley and party president Amit Shah, have publicly claimed.